


Painted

by linasane



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Art, M/M, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:59:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1780003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linasane/pseuds/linasane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Cas just need a little push from friendship into something more.  In walks Pamela Barnes...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Painted

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired in part by those neon paint photos that were floating around on tumblr for a while (I don't know how to put a link in here, sorry).

Dean and Castiel are at a stalemate.

There’s been an unspoken mutual attraction between the two for a while now, ever since they met when they moved into the same apartment.  Dean knows it, Cas knows it, their third roommate Balthazar knows it, hell, even Dean’s brother Sam knows it.  And yet, neither of them makes a move.  Cas is too shy, and Dean is too afraid to ruin one of the best friendships he’s had in his life.  So they stay the way they are – constantly on the precipice of something greater, in need of a push to get them there.

Finally, after months of tension, they get that push.

* * *

It happens on a random Thursday afternoon, when Dean and Cas are hanging out at their usual coffee shop.  It’s a quiet place, just far enough from campus that it’s never swarmed with students.  It’s got free wifi, and no one cares if they just sit there drinking coffee for hours on end.  The warm environment and cozy chairs are especially useful on days like today, when Balthazar has someone over to the apartment, and Dean and Cas need to escape for a bit.

They’ve been sitting there for about an hour, Cas with his laptop and Dean with his latest book in his hands, when Dean sees someone approaching their table out of the corner of his eye.  He looks up to find an attractive brunette in tight black jeans and an even tighter tank top standing in front of them.

 “Hey there,” he greets, with a cocky smile (he may be totally gone on his roommate, but that doesn’t mean he can’t turn on the charm).

Cas drags his gaze up from his laptop at the sound of his friend’s voice, startling slightly when he sees the woman for the first time, absorbed as he had been in his work.

“Hey yourself,” the woman says.  She grabs a chair from a nearby table and flips it around, straddling it and resting her chin on the backrest, grey eyes flicking between the two men in front of her.

“Can we help you…?” Cas asks, clearly irritated at the distraction.

“Pamela,” the woman smiles, “And you sure can, Blue Eyes.  I was actually hoping you two could help me out with a little project I’m working on.”

“What kind of project?” Cas asks suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

“It’s for my final photography project – I’m a student over at the university.” Pamela explains.  The men still look skeptical, so she continues, “The whole thing is inspired by the elements – you know, earth, wind, fire, water – and their push-pull relationships, how they connect despite the differences between them.”

As she speaks, Dean can see Cas getting more and more interested, art nerd that he is.  Dean’s more focused on the ego boost he gets when he realizes why Pamela approached them.

“You need art models,” he says, unable to stop himself from puffing up a bit on the last word.

“Exactly.  I already have a couple people, and you two would be just _perfect_  to round the whole thing out.  I mean, look at you two, totally different.  You,” she said, pointing to Cas, “With the shy nerd exterior and the whole dark and stormy thing going.  And you,” she said to Dean, “Cocky as hell.  Pretty too, if a little rough around the edges.  You’re very different, and yet you fit together so well.  It’s exactly what I’m looking for.  So, how about you say yes and help me out?”

“What, exactly, would you need us to do?” Cas asks.

“Well, you’d have to let me paint you, get a little hands on,” she says, staring right at Dean, who flushes (he can dish it out, but he always gets flustered when people are cocky right back), “And then you’d have to pose for a few shots.  It would take a few hours, maybe an afternoon, tops.  And you’d be paid for your time, twenty bucks an hour.”

There was a beat of silence before she continued, “Tell you what.  I’ll let you two talk it over, and when you make your decision, I’ll be right over there.”  She pointed to the far corner of the shop before sauntering away, leaving Dean and Cas still staring in her direction.

Finally Dean snaps out of it and turns to his friend, intrigue still clear on his face.

“We’re doing this, aren’t we?” Dean asks.

Castiel nods with barely contained excitement, “Yes.”

* * *

And that’s how they ended up here, in the university art studio at ass-o-clock on a Saturday morning.

“Remind me again why we had to be here so early,” Dean grumbles to Cas as they walk in the door.”

“Because it was the only time I could book the studio,” comes Pamela’s voice from behind him.  “Aw, cheer up, grumpy,” she says as she passes, raising the cup carrier in her hand, “I brought coffee.”

They follow her over to a table at the side of the room where two women are standing, a fiery redhead and a brunette.

“Hey, Pam!” the redhead greets, graciously accepting a cup of coffee, though she seems energized enough without it.

“Hey Charlie,” Pamela says, “Dean, Castiel, I’d like you to meet Charlie and Gilda.  They’re the other models for the project.”

They all exchange greetings before being left to their coffee as Pam goes to set up.

“So,” Charlie says, “How’d you two get roped into this whole thing?”

“Pamela approached us in a coffee shop,” Cas says simply.

“Yeah,” Dean elaborates, “Said something about us being perfect for this project, whatever that means.”

“I can see it,” Gilda says, suddenly speaking up as her eyes flicked between the two men, “The way you two are so different, yet you balance each other out – it’s exactly what Pamela’s going for with this.”

“Don’t mind her,” Charlie stage whispers to Dean, “Total art nerd.”

Dean chuckles, cocking a thumb at his friend. “Him too.  All this artsy fartsy stuff gets him all hot and bothered.  Isn’t that right, Cas?” he teases, nudging his friend.

The other man rolls his eyes, while Charlie and Dean just laugh.  They settle back into a comfortable silence after that.

Eventually, Pamela is joined by three of her fellow art students, who she introduces as Tessa, Anna, and Alfie.  The four of them each take one of their “models,” leading them to chairs at the far end of the room, which are set up in front of a makeshift makeup station, dozens of jars of paint littering its surface.

Dean ends up paired with Tessa, who drags him over to the mirrors and promptly instructs him to strip.

“What?!” Dean asks, flustered.

Tessa chuckles at him before she explains, “I’m going to be painting your face and your torso, so I need you to take your shirt off.”

Dean hesitates, sparing a glance behind her at Cas with Alfie, Gilda with Anna, and Charlie with Pamela.  Sure enough, the girls are both down to thin white tank tops, and Cas is just wiggling out of his sweater.  As his friend strips off his undershirt, Dean finds that he can’t stop staring because, holy crap, Cas has  _tattoos_.  They’re not small, either.  Huge black wings start at Cas’s shoulder blades and cover the expanse of his back.  He’s also got a tattoo on his left side, lines of symbols Dean doesn’t recognize.

“Damn,” he can’t help but blurt out, “Nice ink, dude.”

Cas blushes and ducks his head.  “Thank you,” he says softly, neither man noticing the odd looks they’re getting from the artists around them.

Dean stares for a moment longer before he hears Tessa clears her throat behind him and gets to work pulling off his own layers of shirts.  He’s got ink too, but it’s just a simple symbol over his heart, one to match his brother’s.

A comfortable silence falls over the room as the artists start their work, brushes smearing cold paint over the models’ skin.  Eventually, there’s only the detail work left, and the artists are able to spare some of their attention for conversation.

“So,” he hears Alfie ask Cas next to him, “How long have you two been together?”

Dean’s head whips around, Tessa huffing as he almost causes her to mess up a line.

“We’re, uh, we’re not.  Together, I mean,” Cas stutters out, “We’re not together.”

“What?” Pamela calls out, putting down her brushes and walking over, “You’re not a couple?”  The two men shake their heads.  “Oh,” she says, “Well, shit.”

“What is it?” Dean asks.

Pamela sighs in frustration.  “The whole point of the project is the _relationships_  between the elements, and I chose to work with couples is because I want the connecting points between the elements to be a kiss.  I thought you two were together,” she says, waving her hands between them, exasperated, “And now you’re all set up and ready and – I don’t want to push you two into anything you don’t want to do, but is there any chance you could just, I don’t know,  _pretend_?”

Dean glances over at Cas, panicked, and the other man meets his gaze with a much calmer expression on his face.

“You want us to pretend to be together, just for the photographs,” he clarifies, eyes never leaving Dean’s.

“Yes, exactly!” Pam says, “The pictures themselves won’t take that long, and you two wouldn’t have to do anything but kiss maybe once or twice.”

Dean nods once, stiffly, then.  “We’ll, uh,” he says, voice coming out rougher than he intended, “I mean, we can do that.  Right, Cas?”

Castiel nods as well, finally breaking their gaze to look at Pamela.  “We can do it,” he confirms.

“Oh thank God,” she mutters, looking up at the ceiling.  “Thank you guys, seriously, so much,” she says, “I’m going to get Charlie and Gilda done first while you guys finish getting painted, and then we’ll get you guys done as quickly as possible.”  She rushes back over to finish up her painting, leaving Cas and Dean in a somewhat stunned silence, Tessa and Alfie looking on warily.

“Okay,” Dean finally says, “So we’re good to do this?”

Cas nods, “We’re good, Dean.  Don’t worry.”

* * *

Dean worries, of course he does.

He worries as Tessa finishes painting him, endless swirls of greens and browns.  He worries about kissing Cas, about how it might change their relationship, and whether or not they’ll ever be able to go back if everything gets fucked up.

He worries as he watches Pamela photograph Charlie and Gilda.  Even with all his concerns, he has to admit that the whole thing looks fantastic.  Charlie’s been painted as fire, chaotic brush strokes of red, orange, and yellow, all accentuated by her short red hair, which has been spiked up in all directions.  Gilda’s paint is the opposite, the calm to Charlie’s chaos.  The swirls of blues and creamy whites that cover her skin are completely reminiscent of a calming wind sweeping over.  Her long brown hair sweeps down over her shoulders, soft curls contributing to the serene image that she presents.  He watches in awe as they pose for the camera, but all his worries come rushing back when they kiss, and he realizes that he’ll have to do the same with Cas.

He doesn’t try to deny that he wants this, he has for a long time.  And he’s pretty sure Cas does too.  But he’s just so scared.  What if it all goes wrong?  What if they don’t work well together?  What if it makes everything awkward and drives them apart.  He doesn’t want to lose his best friend over a kiss.

A tentative hand on his shoulder pulls him out of his own head, and he turns to find Cas, finally done being painted.

He looks amazing.

He’s been painted in swirls of blue, tiny flecks of white worked in to make him look like water, like the ocean.  Dark blue brushstrokes curl down his arms, leading to the white paint that covers his hands and looks like the crest of a wave.

“Whoa,” is all Dean manages to say.

Cas tears his eyes away from where he’s been staring at Dean’s own paintjob and looks like he’s about to say something, but then Pamela calls the two of them over.

Dean sucks in a deep, steadying breath, and follows his friend into place in front of the camera.

—-

“Okay, boys,” Pamela says from behind the camera, “You ready?”

They’ve finished the majority of their shots together, mostly consisting of them moving closer and closer together, looking at each other as if they were strangers, alien beings coming together for the first time.  It had been weird, and Dean had felt pretty stupid in the process, but Pamela assures him that the photos are perfect, exactly what she’s going for.

Now all that’s left is the big finale: the kiss.

Both men nod in response to the question, and Cas turns to Pamela.

“What do you want us to do?”

She looks between them for a moment, before sliding out from behind the camera.  “One second,” she says, disappearing out of sight behind the backdrop, “I just want to add a finishing touch.”

She’s back in a moment with a tiny step stool, which she places at Castiel’s feet. “Step up on this for me, Blue Eyes.”  At Cas’s quizzical look, she adds, “Just trust me, okay?”

Cas steps up on the box, and Pamela gets back behind her camera.

“Okay,” she says, “Whenever you boys are ready, just go ahead and, well, kiss.”

Dean swallows nervously and then turns to look at Cas.  It’s weird, being shorter than the other man.  Usually Dean has a couple inches on his friend, but now the height difference is oddly reversed, causing him to have to stare  _up_  at Castiel.

“Hey,” he says, ridiculously.

Cas smirks, much more comfortable in doing this than Dean would expect, or perhaps he’s just better at hiding his nervousness.

“Hello, Dean.”

“So, uh,” Dean says, resisting the urge to rub at the back of his neck lest he smear the paint there, “I guess we should just do this, then?”

Cas nods, and then suddenly he’s leaning in and closing his eyes, and Dean is doing the same.

And then they’re kissing. It’s just the briefest touch of lips at first, but it’s everything Dean’s ever wanted.

He can’t help himself after that.  He sucks in a breath through his nose as he wraps his arms around Cas’s waist and pulls the other man flush against him.  And then there are fingers tangled in his hair, probably getting paint all throughout, but Dean doesn’t give a damn about the mess it’s making.  He’s got Cas in his arms and Cas’s tongue in his mouth, and they’re kissing and it’s wonderful and perfect.

The two men are too wrapped up in each other to realize that Pamela has taken her final photograph of them, of two elements blending together as one.

Dean’s paint is heavy, deep greens trapped under a tangle of brown lines that cover his torso and snake down both arms.  He’s earth, stationary and grounded.  Cas’s paint is the opposite, done so that it seems to move on his skin, a sea of blue.  Alfie left the wings on his back untouched, and even though they’re incongruous with the element of water, they still work.  With their switched up height difference, Cas hovers over Dean like a wave, pulling up while Dean pulls down, the interaction clear even in the still shot.  Their paint is smearing together everywhere they connect, earth mixing in with water and vice versa.  The entire image is beautiful.

But neither man notices.  They cling tight to each other, all previous reservations forgotten.

This, Dean decides, is worth the risk.  Having Cas in his arms, being able to hold him and kiss him, pushing their relationships past friends, past all the built up sexual tension.  It’s worth everything.

When they eventually walk out of the studio, hand in hand, Dean couldn’t be more sure of his decision.

* * *

A month later, when they attend the art show where Pamela’s presenting her final work, both men make sure to thank her for finally giving them that push.


End file.
